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The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) is staking $255, 000 equity investments in some Nigerian innovators. It announced the funding in addition to consolation prizes at the recent NSIA Prize for Innovation (NPI) programme in Lagos.
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The NPI was developed by Nigerian tech entrepreneurs as a multi-year initiative to identify innovative technological solutions – winners are usually announced after a three-stage competition.
This year, 10 finalists emerged from over 2,000 entries whose initiatives were reviewed within a six months window in which they had to develop and refine their ideas leading to the emergence of the finalists who in turn, had to undergo stringent screening by judges at the demo day.
Money Africa won adjudged the best of the breeds to cart away the $25,000 (about N19 million) star prize followed by Extension Africa voted second with $17, 500 (about 17 million) for grabs. LegitCar Africa went home with $12,500 (about N ) for the third spot.
Seven innovators werw all voted as occupying the fourth position and all went home with $5,000 each. They include: Ya-lo Technologies, Vella Finance, Credit-Chek, Kobopay Technologies, TruQ, Apace Technology Solutions, and Capsa Technology. Other participants had consolation prizes.
But the major reward for the winner is exposure to equity investments, third-party capital through the NSIA to the tune of $255, 00 from financiers within and outside the country in addition to access to mentorship to help them build sustainable enterprises.
According to its promoters, the NSIA modeled the support into two components of cash prizes and equity investment.
The event focuses on technology-enabled businesses in financial services, agriculture, health, education, manufacturing, logistics and mobility, e-commerce and marketplaces as well as climate.
Held under the theme of ‘Driving a Sustainable Future Through Innovation’, Managing Director/CEO, NSIA, Mr. Aminu Umar-Sadiq, said the programme’s goals include “to identify, build, and finance early-stage innovative solutions that have the potential to catalyse economic growth, advance solutions to social issues, and create jobs.”
Adding: “I think the important thing is that this event actually catalyzes what we have seen as very great ideas emanating from Nigeria and entrepreneurs to solve Nigerian problems. I hope that this event allows us to mobilise domestic long-term capital toward Nigeria’s development.”
According to Umar-Sadiq, the support model allows the NSIA to take ownership in these businesses so that beyond the prizes, it could also directly engage with the entrepreneurs and add more value to them beyond just cash.
“At NSIA, our ambitions are multifaceted, and technology helps us support the growth of other key sectors and deliver healthy financial returns and the desired social outcomes,” Umar-Sadiq said to stress that the organisation sees ICT as key to drive growth and capacity to solve real-life problems across sectors and across borders.
According to Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullah, the seed funding for startups would help position Nigeria for accelerated job creation in the digital economy.
“I am highly impressed with the kind of innovative ideas that I have seen today. And this shows that we have great potential and luck in Nigeria. Looking at what is happening with this kind of initiative to provide seed funding for startups, it will really help position Nigeria for accelerated jobs creation in the digital economy,” said Abdullah who added that startups have vast legal and other opportunities opened to them by the new Nigeria Startup Act.
His words: “Under the act, we are to establish a startup investment seed fund. The act says we need a minimum of N10 billion per annum but we are targeting N100 billion so that we should be able to seed at least 1,000 early-stage startups and about 400 late-stage startups. This can help us to hit more than 80,000 jobs in Nigeria.”
